Hiding in the Shadows
by PurpleFluffyMuffin
Summary: We all know Harvest Moon's 64 Rick as the forever-single tool shop owner. However, no one really knows that his love life is actually a mess. (One-shot)


**Author's Note: Hi, guys! This is a one-shot about HM64's Rick and his jumbled mess of a love life. I hope you guys like it! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon 64 or anything from Harvest Moon, for that matter. This is for entertainment purposes only.  
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It was ten o'clock in the morning, and Rick was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. He had just finished reorganizing all of his tools that he had placed ever so carefully on his shelf. He then put his shop's inventory on display atop the counters. His shop was now ready for business.

Things never got too busy in Rick's shop. It was a rarity for him to get a customer. Usually, the only customers he had in his shop were his own family from Green Ranch. Unfortunately for Rick, the carpenters in the mountain were able to make their own tools, so they never had to bother with buying tools from him.

Rick stood behind his counter for, what appeared to be, ages. He finally swept his long, red hair away from his face and looked down at his watch. It was already seven minutes past two. "It's already been over four hours and still no customer," Rick muttered to himself. As Rick let out a sigh, he heard the squeak of his shop's door. Rick figured it was just Ann, his tomboy, red-headed cousin. He looked steadily up at the door. This, indeed, was not the hot-tempered girl Rick was expecting. She was a brunette with long, braided hair and rather large glasses.

"Hi, welcome to my shop. Can I help you find anything?" Rick asked, rushing to greet the only customer he has had all day.

"Uh… uh…. I just…" the girl was stuttering. "Um… I was just…. Wondering if… I could borrow…" The girl was blushing at this point.

Rick walked up to his customer. He then grabbed the girl's shoulders and looked into her dark brown eyes. "You don't have to be so scared," Rick assured the brunette. "I'll let you borrow anything you need from this shop. Just say the word, and I'll get it."

"Oh, thank you ever so much," the girl replied. She began looking up at Rick. Surprisingly enough, she was actually starting to feel a lot calmer. "I… actually needed to borrow a screwdriver."

"A screwdriver? No problem," Rick responded. He let go of the girl's shoulder and grabbed a screwdriver from his shelf.

He looked down at the screwdriver for a moment. What if there was something in her home that was in serious need of repair? There was no way he could ever let a complete novice, especially a beautiful girl like herself, handle some serious repair on their own. "If there's something in need of repair, I could fix it for you," Rick offered. Rick felt his cheeks start to get warm.

"Oh no, that would be far too much trouble!" the girl urged.

"Nonsense! " Rick then let out a slight laugh. "To be honest, I wasn't getting any business today anyway. This will give me something to do!"

"Oh… Okay… If you say so..." the brunette answered.

"Great!" Rick exclaimed as he reached over to his shelf and grabbed his entire toolbox.

"Um… I don't think… that you'll be needing all of that," the girl explained to Rick.

"Better safe than sorry," he responded.

The petite brunette lead Rick to the library. As she walked ahead of him, she started to feel a bit guilty, somehow. It was just one nail that came loose from the bookshelf; it was something she could have easily fixed on her own. Regardless, he was kind enough to offer, and he kept insisting that he fix it. Still, this did not make the girl feel much better about the situation.

The two finally made it to the library. As Rick entered the library, the girl reached behind Rick and slowly reached her hand to the door knob. Then, she used her shaking hand to close the door behind them.

The girl's face began turning a bright red. She started looking straight down at the floor, with her braided hair hanging down one side of her neck. Rick did not seem to notice, for he began to focus his attention to the task at hand. He looked around the library.

"So, what was it that needed fixing?" He asked the bashful girl. He then turned his head and focused in on her. He finally noticed how embarrassed she was, and he began to get a little alarmed at this point. "Are you alright? What's the matter?"

The girl began to cry as she kept looking down at the floor. Tears started rolling down her cheeks, as she managed to speak up, "I'm… so sorry. I have caused you… so much trouble," she began. "This was something… that I could have easily fixed on my own."

Rick put his toolbox down on the floor. Then then walked up to the girl and put his hand on her shoulder again. "It's alright," Rick assured the girl. "It's my fault for being so pushy."

The girl began wiping the tears from her eyes. She then let out a slight giggle. "I'm terribly sorry, I get so worked up over the smallest things."

"It's alright," Rick said as he let go of the girl's shoulder. "But I may as well fix whatever it is that's broken while I'm here."

Maria walked up to the bookshelf with the missing nail. She then grabbed the nail from her pocket. "This came undone from the shelf," she told Rick as she pointed to the spot where the nail had come loose.

"Oh, well I can get this fixed in a jiffy!" Rick pulled out the screwdriver from his toolbox and took the nail from the girl's hand. He then screwed the nail back in from where it had come loose.

"Thank you so much," the girl said, her face still a bright red.

"Don't mention it," Rick answered.

"My name is Maria, by the way," the girl finally informed Rick.

"My name's Rick. It's nice meeting you, Maria," Rick replied as he began making his way out of the library. "Be sure to stop by my shop sometime."

"And you do the same here," Maria offered. The two let out a slight giggle as Rick headed out the door.

As Rick left the library, he realized that he did not even remember ever meeting her before. Rick had lived in this village his entire life with his grandmother, who had owned the shop before she passed away. Rick's parents were always busy with work, so they eventually decided to let him stay with his grandmother so that he could be with his own family. Rick loved the village, and he very rarely made a trip home to see his parents.

Although Rick had been living in the village for so long, he did not even remember ever seeing Maria anywhere in the village. He pondered on this for a moment. "Maybe she just moved here," Rick thought. Then, it came to him. "Wait a second! The mayor's daughter works at the library! Therefore, she must have been living here her whole life. But why is it that I have never even seen her before?" He thought about this for a moment. "I guess it's where she's so shy; I sure hope she has some friends. I wonder if she gets lonely."

Rick continued back to his shop. All he could think about was the brunette he had just met. "I wonder if Ann ever talks to her," he thought. "Then again, Ann may not be too nice to Maria. Hmm…" He was almost home when he realized something—something important. "Why would I be thinking about this girl so much, if I just met her?" Then, Rick's face turned blood red, as he raised his eyebrows at his shop's door. "I like her!" Rick finally realized.

He rushed inside his shop and closed the door behind him. He leaned against the door, as he realized his brain was quickly becoming a jumbled up mess. His heart was racing, and he was getting more flustered by the minute. "This is insane, I just met the girl!" He muttered to himself inside his shop's walls.

He decided it was high-time he got his act together. So what if he liked Maria? It was no big deal; it was only natural for him to fall for someone. Yeah. He was just following the laws of nature. Not a problem.

It was finally closing time at his shop. He was still feeling a bit embarrassed about the whole situation, but he was not feeling quite as disoriented as he was earlier. Still, he felt like he needed someone to talk to in a situation like this. "Maybe Ann would know what to do in this situation," he supposed.

He locked the door to his shop and made his way to Green Ranch. Along the way, all he could find himself doing was thinking about Maria. He passed a lot of time on the way there by taking guesses at what Maria was doing at the moment. At first, he guessed that she was engrossed with some book—perhaps a romance novel. How cute! Then, he realized that Maria seemed like too sweet of a girl to abandon her duties at home for a book, so he then took a gander and supposed that she was helping her mother around the house. Then again, her mom was usually home the entire day, so was there really anything that needed done by the time she got back home from her day at the library?

Rick's trail of thought was interrupted when he suddenly felt himself crash head-first into a fellow villager. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry," Rick apologized as he raised himself up off the ground. "Are you hurt?" He asked.

The villager let out a slight moan. Rick was finally standing up again, when he noticed it was Harris. "Yeah, I'm alright," Harris finally answered as he got up off the ground.

Rick looked down on the ground. He noticed a letter sealed in a white envelope lying on the ground. "Oh, you must have dropped this," Rick said as he picked the letter up from the ground. As he did, he glanced at the letter and noticed that it was addressed to Maria.

Harris noticed Rick picking up the letter. He quickly grabbed the letter from Rick's hands. "Please don't tell anyone about this!" he begged. "I've liked Maria for so long now, and I… I just couldn't find the words to tell her!"

This was a blow to Rick. He had just fallen for the girl, yet it seemed as though he had lost her just as quickly. Rick was disappointed, but he perked up for Harris's sake. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

"Thank you so much. I knew I could trust you, Rick," Harris thanked Rick as he headed on to the bar for the evening.

Rick stood there for a moment. This certainly came as a blow to him. He thought he finally had a chance, for once. After his brief moment of self-pity, he put his hands in his pockets and headed back to his shop. It was still loathing most of the way home. Why was it that he was so unlucky? Why was it that he could never have anything he wanted, even if it was something as pure-hearted as love?

Rick made it halfway home when a thought struck him—Maybe Maria would be happier with Harris. After all, weren't you supposed to want whatever was best for the person you loved? Rick suddenly felt better. He was satisfied now that he knew his love could still foster; Maria's happiness was all that mattered.

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**Author's Note: Thank you so much for reading! I hope you guys enjoyed it. Please feel free to leave a review. All feedback is helpful! :)**


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